Discovering me … one stitch at a time

Category: kids
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Our house guests have left and Summer is winding down. We will have one last hurrah at the beach and then back to school.

The first day of school coincides with Littlest’s birthday this year… poor kid. Yesterday I shopped for school supplies, so it is starting to feel very real. This year, both boys will be in Middle School. Elementary School is officially behind us. We are old!

Besides that, there is nothing new and exciting to report. The rain has been endless. We made some delicious home made ice cream. We finished Downton Abbey and are now watching Rome. I’ve been a little draggy and depressed. I think Charlie might be giving me Poison Ivy. I bought these shoes today at the Asian Market. They cheered me up. The Asian Market has the funniest fashions.

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This blog has gotten boring or maybe I just feel uninspired these days.

The wallpaper stripping continues. Now we have moved onto Littlest’s room.

His goal is to transform his room from little kid to teen. Good bye, nice coordinated PB Kids furniture and bedding. Hello, LED lights and slick furniture. Ugh. I’m not sure that I can handle all of these changes.

While we were redecorating, I came upon Littlest’s Piglets.

When Littlest was littler, he was very attached to a stuffed Piglet. We did what good parents do and bought a backup Piglet just in case something should happen to Original Piglet. That plan backfired, however, when Littlest spotted Backup Piglet while in the presence of Original Piglet. He then insisted on carrying both Piglets at all times. Thus, Backup Piglet became Piglet 2.

I think this was Original Piglet. Gah! The binky days!

But enough of this trip down Memory Lane, in current news…

Tom and Biggest went to the beach and had quite a catch!

I appears that Charlie may be part cyborg.

I’ve been obsessed with Downton Abbey (I know… a million years late on this one). But can we discuss? Can Carson and Mrs. Hughes just marry and live happily ever after? Mr. Bates is nothing but trouble! Anna can do better! How annoying is Lady Grantham’s accent? I want a Mrs. Patmore in my life!

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Thank you sincerely for your comments on my last post! You are all so sweet and kind!

Life around here is slowly returning to normal, as life tends to do. This Summer feels as if it’s simultaneously flying at lightning speed while also creeping along at a snail’s pace. It’s a strange, unnerving combination.

It seems like every day I am met with reminders that the boys are growing up. It might be a quick glimpse of one from behind and noticing that he looks more like a young man than a boy, or overhearing one talking to his friends with a lot of “hey bruh” and “yo bro” thrown in, or hearing about how one helped Tom install kitchen cabinets and build a deck and other non-kid-like activities, or finding out that the very littlest one is now only 1/4 of an inch shorter than I am. All of this is not helping my rather introspective and melancholy mood of late. Time is such a curious thing.

Fortunately, even amidst all of these changes, I can count on some things to stay the same, such as…

Charlie will always be adorable,

I will always think up new hair brained projects (such as stripping all of the early 90s wallpaper from our house),

Tom will always do something to make me laugh (Blue Steel on the trampoline),

I wish that I could take all of the kitties home, especially this one who wouldn’t leave my lap.

Biggest only caught 2 crabs but had major success with clam digging.

We prepared a tasty red clam sauce for dinner.

Tom has a silly rule where he won’t wear anything that states the place he is visiting while he is still there. For instance, he would never wear a “Paris” shirt while in Paris. I guess that’s a reasonable concept but sometimes you have to break the rules when you find yourself FREEZING on the boardwalk in Ocean City and you march right into the first shop you see with pants for sale, which happened to be emblazoned with OCEAN CITY.

Other highlights of a cold boardwalk were a giant Pusheen (my favorite)…

And a giant box of Starburst (Tom’s favorite)…

And basking in the beautiful glow of a Ms. Pacman machine… My precioussssss…

Now we are back home and counting down the last few days of school with lots of field days and concerts and playoff games.

I am looking forward to the lazy hazy days of Summer, but who am I kidding… It is never very lazy or hazy around here.

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You know how when the Dementors came around Little Whinging and everything felt depressing and dismal? That’s how it has been in Pennsylvania lately; rainy, cold and downright miserable. I am aching for a sunny day.

My Patronus, Charlie, hard at work.

We are heading to the beach house for the long holiday weekend and have our fingers crossed that the weather will improve. Biggest can’t wait to go crabbing. Littlest can’t wait to play video games on the Boardwalk. Tom can’t wait to go for morning walks with the dogs. And I can’t wait to sport my fanny pack and ride my bike around town.

This week…

Littlest went to Comicon. He looks forward to this every year.

Charlie and Tom (and I) were riveted by the OJ Simpson series on Netflix. I didn’t really follow the trial at the time but GEEZE what a circus! He did it!

I have been obsessed with ferns! I want to plant them everywhere, both inside and out. Which reminds me of the time the boys made up the nickname of “Fern Montague” for me when we were joking around pretending to be fancy people. Unfortunately, the alter ego stuck and Tom dares me on occasion to introduce myself as such when we visit Open Houses. Spoiler alert- I don’t do it!

What’s new with you this week? What’s your Patronus? Do you have an alter ego?

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The boys had off from school yesterday so I decided to take the day off from work too. It is rare that we have a completely unscheduled day, so we went with it!

We took a hike in the late morning and saw tadpoles & frogs, a few fish, a tiny turtle, 2 snakes, and 2 mini goats. There were a lot of squirrels, but they didn’t count, as they are “usual” wildlife. I guess vs. “unusual.”

It was supposed to rain in the late afternoon, so we went to see A Wrinkle in Time at the spiffy new theater near us. I was impressed by the luxurious seating, more so than by the movie itself. I liked the message, but eh… the rest of it wasn’t amazing. That is my official review.

I felt tricked when we left the theater though because it still had not rained, and we had spent a sunny afternoon inside for nothing! The torrential storms did eventually arrive in the evening. We slept with the windows cracked a teensy, just enough to hear the raindrops and rumbly sky. It was very cozy!

I didn’t take a picture of the sky, but Stephanie did because she’s artistic like that.

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Honestly, I’m not sure where to go with this blog. I love having a place to ramble on and record our family memories, but as the boys get older, it seems less OK to share their antics online. The things that I might find adorable as their Mother may seem mortifying to them as a tween and teen. Gah! Parenting is tricky. I guess I’ll just start writing and see how things evolve.

Anyhoo… Where did the last year and a half go? In that time, I have:

1. Barely been stitching (but have been feeling a bit of an itch to get started again)

I finally framed this…

and started this…

2. Moved into a new house (which we LOVE but required a change of schools which was HARD)

We have more space and a lot to garden, which is good and bad…

Tom’s favorite part is the long driveway which means he never has to talk to neighbors. My favorite part is the back patio and gazebo.

3. Got MARRIED (Yes, Tom finally made an honest woman of me after all of these years)!

I love him.

Family Forever.

4. And Charlie is great (I know you must be wondering).

How are you? What’s new? How’s life? Have you been stitching? Did you miss me? I missed you! It’s good to be back!

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I have been so emotional! Maybe it is because we are in those whirlwind late elementary/middle school years, but it seems like the boys are growing up so quickly in so many ways. It is hitting me hard. Since I have a tendency to get caught up in my own busy-ness, I have been trying extra hard to be more present (Thanks ET!) and sit down to talk, cuddle, or hang out with everyone a bit more than usual.

This week…

There was snow! We went sledding.

And finally got to try making snow ice cream.

Have you ever done this? Mix snow (clean! no yellow snow!) with condensed milk and vanilla. It was super easy and the boys loved it.

My new Kitchenaid mixer arrived so I celebrated by baking bread. I used the recipe that came with the mixer and it came out delicious! It doesn’t look so delicious, but you can trust me. We ate both loaves in just a little over a day.

On Saturday, we hosted Biggest’s family birthday party. Most of the family have heard much about his new found love of cooking, but few have had the chance to try it. This year, he wanted to cook a “fancy” dinner for everyone. It was so much fun to help him plan and execute his dinner.

Too many cooks in the kitchen.

We went with stuffed portabella mushrooms, crab bisque, and braised short ribs with mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus. He did an amazing job! Yum!

He knew exactly how he wanted the tables to look.

By the time dinner was served, we were too excited/busy to take any food pics. Oops. But everyone had fun and I think it was a success.

Happy Birthday to my sweet, sensitive Biggest. You make me so proud and I am thankful to be your Mom!

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Today is rainy, but it is supposed to go up to 60 degrees! In February!

Did you have a nice weekend?

Biggest celebrated his 12th(!!!) birthday with a party with friends. It is hard to believe that we have an official tween in our midst.

We recently bought a new investment property. It is always a bit of a surprise when we actually get the official paperwork and can enter the house. You never know what you’ll find.

This weekend, we went to the new place and I found this…

Hee! I cleaned it up and brought it home with me. I love old cross stitches and the stories that they tell. We also found 7 guitars and an organ but this isn’t a musical instrument blog. It’s not much of a cross stitch blog anymore either, but meh… that’s neither here nor there.

Do any of you like Eckhart Tolle? Tom bought me a copy of “The New Earth” maybe two years ago and I just could not get through it. I picked it up again a few weeks ago and, this time, it totally made sense! I liked it so much that I went out and bought “The Power of Now” too. I am having difficulty with that one so far, but maybe in 2 years, I’ll totally get it.

But, anyhoo, I think I’ve been driving everyone crazy talking about my “pain body” and quoting ET (pet name for Eckhart Tolle) a gajillion times a day.

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I feel like my blog has been so boring lately. Maybe it seems like I write about the same old things over and over. Maybe my trivial posts seem so silly when compared to the big things happening in the World. Maybe sometimes I feel like “What’s the point?”

I’m not sure if there is a point to this blog, except that writing it makes me happy, especially when everything outside seems so dark and heavy at the moment. Sigh. Deep thoughts for a Tuesday morning.

The weekend was cold. The highlights were that:

Tom surprised me with flowers for no reason.

Biggest’s school had a swap meet where the kids could rent a table and sell “stuff”. He and I spent one evening making a crapload of dumplings. He made $92 in dumpling sales and was super proud.

I finally nabbed the latest issue of CrossStitcher. By the way, did you hear that Cross Stitch Collection magazine is closing down? Sad.

We went out to dinner and my mashed potatoes looked like they were sprouting. Does anyone know what kind of sprouts those are? They were delicious.

Tom got me a “make it instead of buy it” cookbook for Christmas. It is full of cool recipes for things you can “make instead of buy.” The boys and I decided to try the recipe for pita bread. I made the dough, Littlest rolled it out,

and Biggest fried them.

They were tasty! It was a lot of effort so I don’t know if I would “actually make it instead of buy it” in the future, but it was a fun cold day activity with the kids.